Trying to find somewhere cheaper to buy a house!

[meD]

I was wondering if any of you could help me by giving me some advice on where's cheaper to buy a property? I live in Kingston upon Thames & even though I love it here, we will never ever be able to afford to buy our own house. So, we are trying to find another area not too far away where maybe we can afford somewhere. Someone's suggested Farnborough, does anyone live in Farnborough that could give me an idea what it's like there? Or can anyone suggest any other nice towns??? Many thanks.

[peanut]

Which farnborough do you mean, there is one in kent and i think the other is in Herts ???

[meD]

I thought it was in Surrey, nr Guildford? not sure? But it's not the one on Kent. MeD

[bee]

I think you might mean Farnham which is a few miles from Guildford. My dh used to live there before we met, so I can't tell you anything about it, but good luck.

[pupuce]

Farnham isn't cheap to my knowledge (I have friends living there). I can only suggest places in Kent. Sorry

[PamT]

I don't think anywhere is cheap these days. We were all set to move house this year from our terraced to a semi but prices have jumped up so much that we are now stuck here forever unless we get that big lottery win. We can't find the extra £40K+ that it would take. This is a comparatively cheap part of the country (W Yorks), I'm glad I don't want to buy in or around London.

[Jackiewhit]

A useful website which gives you an idea of areas/house prices and other useful information is www.upyourstreet.co.uk.

I live near Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire and there is still some reasonably price housing (although Cambridge is v. expensive) in the area, especially the fens - and the experts reckon the area will be in the top 10 in the country for the most house price growth over the next 5 years.

[fairy]

Farnborough is in Hampshire, and is near to Camberly, Farnham, Aldershot and Frimley.

Of the four Aldershot is the cheapest, mainly due to it being an army town. All are expensive due to how close they are to the M3.

Don't move to Farnham! Went to college there and it made me very ill, almost had to leave my course. Apparently it is the most polluted 'rural' town in the country, well it was 8 years ago!

Other than that if you move further down the M3 or further away from it it gets cheap. Very expensive if you choose somewhere between M3 and M4, in my experience.

Hope this has been of some help!

[arizona]

meD
I used to live in Bury St Edmunds,Suffolk, and its a really nice town and perfect for families ie good schools, beautiful park, lots of "festivals", great leisure pool, big shops and nice little ones, seaside not too far etc. Also close to booming Cambridge so prices were on the up when we left.It depends what you mean by affordable. Anyway, probably not what you're after, but I liked it!

[PamT]

Sobernow, I mean expensive compared with what it used to be in W Yorks, 2 bed terraced are now £65K ish and good semis over £100k. Cheap compared with the south but still out of our budget.

[Bozza]

Sobernow - we bought a new 4 bed detached for £110K two years ago. Equivilant houses are now being sold for £140K (village near M1 in West Yorkshire) so I think this is what PamT was getting at. I don't think that this compares to prices in most of the south and probably including Bath.

[peanut]

I know its getting ridiculous, but I have just sold a 1 bed flat above a shop (no garden or parking) on quite a busy road for 2 1/2 times what i paid for it

Saying that though all that profit has had to go into the new house otherwise we couldn't have afforded to stay in the area.

[PamT]

We were sold 2 endowment policies in the late 80's which have underperformed and needed topping up - more money to pay out. We were promised that our mortgage would be covered AND we would have a lump some to play with too. I wish we'd had a repayment instead, at least we wouldn't have owed as much now (13 years on) and we might have been in a better position to buy a bigger house (desperately needed for the 5 of us).

[PamT]

Never thought about compensation. In truth we were told right at the beginning by the salesman (who was actually the estate agent - another reason to hate them, he was getting a fat commission from the endowment company no doubt) that nothing was guaranteed and that things did depend on 'the market' etc but we were sold a very rosy picture and the thought of retiring with a huge lump sum (sounded much more money in those days) was very tempting. I don't think we were told any lies as such, just lead to believe that things couldn't go wrong. The same estate agent is now a mortgage consultant running his own business in my home town, I would love to give him a piece of my mind and ask him how he sleeps at night.

We're tied into a fixed rate agreement at the moment, even though the fixed rate finished months ago, but as soon as it is over we are going to look at our options and see if we can somehow change our mortgage. 25 years is a long time to be paying out and still have a debt to sort out at the end of it. DH and I are bitter to say the least.

[CathB]

Would not use Abbey N again ever! I bought a flat with my ex in the late 80s when there were the first concerns about endowments and was told that "although in theory they may not cover the loan, this has never happened" and every objection to a bloody endowment I had was overruled and we ended up with one. When we split up, I converted his half to a repayment and I am sooo thankful. I still have my endowment on the basis it might pay for dd to go to University but even that looks doubtful! AN also rubbish with respect to paperwork too! Bitter, moi?
We needed to move to Herts and have ended up in the old part of Stevenage which is nice and cheaper than Welwyn GC etc. Still a stupid amount of money though. I gather that in much of Europe they have a much better attitude, much more renting but its much more secure, so lots of people dont bother buying.